Luke Strotz

Research Affiliate

My research integrates concepts from palaeoecology and macroevolutionary dynamics and draws on paleontological, geological and biological data to address the macro-ecological question ‘what drives patterns of community structure? Specific areas of research to date include: 1) Integrating palaeontological and molecular data to identify the importance of population subdivision as a driver of community diversity and phenotypic evolution; 2) Reconstructing historical trends of environmental change in estuarine and tropical reef settings by establishing the drivers of diversity in extant systems; and 3) Determining the resilience of communities subjected to repeated disturbance and how ecological data can be used to quantify the frequency and intensity of extreme marine inundation events.
Publications: 

Recent Publications:

Kimmig, J., Strotz, L.C., Kimmig, S.R., Egenhoff, S.O. & Lieberman, B.S. (2019) The Spence Shale Lagerstätte: an Important Window into Cambrian Biodiversity. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 176: 609–619. DOI://10.1144/jgs2018-195

Strotz, L.C., Saupe, E.E., Kimmig, J. & Lieberman, B.S. (2018) Metabolic rates, climate and macroevolution: A case study using Neogene molluscs. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285: 20181292. DOI://10.1098/rspb.2018.1292 

Strotz, L.C., Simões, M., Girard, M., Breitkreuz, L., Kimmig, J. & Lieberman, B.S. (2018) Getting Somewhere with the Red Queen: Chasing a Biologically Modern Definition of the Hypothesis. Biology Letters, 14: 20170734. DOI://10.1098/rslb.2017.0734

Elder, L.E., Hsiang, A.Y., Nelson, K., Strotz, L.C., Kahanamoku, S.S. & Hull, P.M. (2018) Sixty-one thousand recent planktonic foraminifera from the Atlantic Ocean. Scientific Data, 5: 180109. DOI://10.1038/sdata.2018.109

Kimmig, J. and Strotz, L.C. (2017) Coprolites in mid-Cambrian (Series 2-3) Burgess Shale-type deposits of Nevada and Utah and their ecological implications, Bulletin of Geosciences, 92: 297–309. DOI://10.3140/bull.geosci.1667

Kimmig, J., Strotz, L.C., and Lieberman, B.S. (2017) The stalked filter feeder Siphusauctum lloydguntheri n. sp. from the middle Cambrian (Series 3: Stage 5) Spence Shale of Utah: Its biological affinities and taphonomy. Journal of Paleontology 91:902-910. DOI://10.1017/jpa.2017.57

Topper, T.P., Strotz, L.C., Skovsted, C.B., and Holmer, L.H. (2017) Do brachiopods show substrate-related phenotypic variation? A case study from the Burgess Shale. Palaeontology, 60: 269–279. DOI://10.1111/pala.12281

Strotz, L.C., Mamo, B.L., and Dominey-Howes, D. (2016) Effects of cyclone-generated disturbance on a tropical reef foraminifera assemblage. Scientific Reports, 6: 24846

Strotz, L.C. (2015) Spatial patterns and diversity of foraminifera from an intermittently closed and open lagoon: Smiths Lake, Australia. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 164: 340-352

Topper, T.P., Strotz, L.C., Holmer, L.E., and Caron, J-B. (2015) Survival on a soft seafloor: life strategies of brachiopods from the Cambrian Burgess Shale. Earth-Science Reviews, 151: 266- 287

Topper, T.P., Strotz, L.C., Holmer, L.E., Zhang, Z., Tait, N.N., and Caron, J-B. (2015) Competition and mimicry: the curious case of chaetae in brachiopods from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 15: 42

Strotz, L.C. and Allen, A.P. (2013). Reply to Aze et al.: Distinguishing speciation modes based on multiple lines of evidence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(32):E2974

Strotz, L.C. and Allen, A.P. (2013) Assessing the role of cladogenesis in macroevolution by integrating fossil and molecular evidence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(8):2904-2909

Strotz, L.C. (2012) Foraminiferal Fauna and Biotopes of a Barrier Estuary System: St Georges Basin, New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 42(4):369-382

Professional Presentations: 

Recent Presentations:

Strotz, L.C., Saupe, E.E., Kimmig, J., and Lieberman, B.S. Relating ecology to macroevolution using metabolic rates of Neogene mollusc communities. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2017, Seattle, USA

Strotz, L.C., Mamo, B.C., Dominey-Howes, D. Ecological methods reveal new microfossil signals of cyclone activity in a tropical reef setting. AGU Fall Meeting, 2016, San Francisco, USA

Strotz, L.C., Saupe, E.E., Hsiang, A.Y., Elder, L.E., Heim, N.A., Dowsett, H.J., and Hull, P.M. Geographic variations in body size for the northern Atlantic pelagic biome. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2016, Denver, USA

Elder, L., Hsiang, A., Kahanomoku, S., Nelson, K., Strotz, L., and Hull, P. Use of High-throughput imaging to extract morphometrics of recent planktonic foraminifera communities from the North Atlantic. International Conference of Paleooceanography, 2016, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Strotz, L.C., Modern estuaries as analogues for Permian and Cretaceous intracratonic seas. International Palaeontological Congress, 2014, Mendoza, Argentina

Topper, T.P., Holmer, L.E., Strotz, L., Tait, N, Zhang, Z. and Caron, J.B. The curious case of chaetae in brachiopods from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting 2014, Leeds, UK